Own Your Own Crazy
by DizzyDrea
Summary: Beckett could see the hope in Castle's eyes. Hope that he hadn't completely ruined the trust they'd all built by withholding such an important detail about himself. A Magical AU.


Title: Own Your Own Crazy  
Author: DizzyDrea  
Summary: Beckett could see the hope in Castle's eyes. Hope that he hadn't completely ruined the trust they'd all built by withholding such an important detail about himself. Esposito and Ryan looked at each other; Espo shrugged, then looked back at Castle.  
"It's all good, bro," he said, slapping Castle on the arm. "Just don't go keeping any more secrets from us. One big one a lifetime is about my limit."  
Rating: T  
Spoilers: None  
Author's Notes: Done for a square on my Trope Bingo card, but it was fun to do just the same. Having Castle be something other than what he appears to be was a challenging exercise. It says on the tags that this is a Dresden Files AU, but think of it as a magical AU that has some similarities to the Dresden Files and you'll be okay, because honestly, it's been ages since I've read a book or watched the show. This takes place in some nebulous time pre-relationship for Beckett and Castle, so maybe Season 3-ish? /shrugs/ Imagine whatever works for you. The title comes from the Kacey Musgraves song "Biscuit".  
For the _AU: Magic_ square on my Trope Bingo card  
Disclaimer: Castle is the property of ABC, ABC Studios, Beacon Productions, Andrew Marlowe and a lot of other people who aren't me. I am doing this for fun and for practice. Mostly for fun.

~o~

"Come on, Castle," Kate Beckett said, her chuckle more exasperation than amusement. "That's the best you can do?"

"I am a man of many and varied tastes, but even I've been known to indulge in a little low-rent satisfaction from time to time."

Richard Castle looked like nothing so much as a proud papa in that moment, and Beckett snorted and rolled her eyes, even as the uniforms surrounding their latest crime scene snickered at what they all assumed he was talking about.

"And a food-truck burrito at two AM doesn't seem like a little bit of a risk?"

"For the best burrito in the Five Boroughs?"

Becket just shook her head. The man had no concept of personal safety, and worse, seemed not to understand why he should. Being Richard Castle opened lots of doors for him—for them, really, which was certainly convenient when they needed help on a case—but wandering the city streets in the middle of the night in search of the perfect burrito had disaster written all over it.

"Castle's not wrong."

Beckett looked up as they arrived at the crime scene tape to find Javier Esposito waiting for them with his notepad open, slight smirk on his face.

"You're not telling me you agree with him?"

"La Duena has the best burrito's in New York," he said. "But I wouldn't go out at two AM to get them. I'm not that crazy, and I carry a gun."

Beckett turned her _see, I told you so_ grin on him, but Castle just rolled his eyes. "One day, Detective, I will take you to visit La Duena, and then we'll see who's right."

Beckett rolled her eyes right back, then turned her attention to the reason they were in this particularly dark and nasty corner of Manhattan. "In the meantime, what have we got, Espo?"

"One vic inside, single GSW to the chest. Bled out all over the warehouse floor before the night watchman found him."

"I thought all these warehouses were abandoned?" Beckett asked as she and Castle ducked under the police tape and headed inside.

"They just recently came under new ownership," Kevin Ryan said as he joined the conversation. "He's trying to clear out the squatters so he can turn them into loft apartments."

"Does he actually think anyone would want to live down here?"

"Believe it or not, the Meat Packing District has become a trendy place to live and play," Ryan said. "This isn't the first loft conversion in the area. In the last couple of years, there's been a couple of restaurants pop up, and another developer has already sold a few units of another building a couple of blocks over."

"Ah, the gentrification of the city's dark underbelly continues," Castle said.

Esposito snorted. "Yeah, well, this guy looks like he belongs anywhere but here."

They arrived at the body, and now Beckett could see what he meant. The man was dressed in a tuxedo, with perfectly-shined shoes and a heavy overcoat that looked like they belonged on a runway. Their ME, Lanie Parrish, was still hunched over the body, but looked up to address her comments to the group at large.

"Time of death is going to be tricky, because the floor is so cold, but I'm estimating sometime after midnight."

"The night watchman doesn't make regular patrols, but he says it was empty in here when he swung by after the late news," Esposito said.

"So, our time of death could be anytime between midnight and six AM," Beckett said. It was a huge window, and not very helpful, but it was also a place to start.

Lanie stood up and peeled off her gloves. "Looks pretty straightforward, but I'll know more after the post. I'm gonna turn the Crime Scene Techs loose and take the body back to the morgue. I'll let you know what I find."

Beckett nodded, but her mind was already spinning with possibilities as Lanie headed for the door.

"So he's wearing a tux, which could mean a charity event of some sort."

"There are plenty of restaurants in the area, and I've even heard of some people renting out warehouses to stage parties," Ryan said. "I'll look at what might have been going on in the neighborhood last night, but he could have come from somewhere else and just ended up here."

"Some society ball where he hit on the wrong woman and her husband objected, with prejudice?" Castle speculated. It drew a huff of laughter out of Ryan and Espo, and even Beckett had to smile at the thought. It wasn't a bad angle to work; Lord knew people had been killed for less.

Just then a shot rang out, the sound of the bullet whizzing past her ear loud in the relative silence of the warehouse. Beckett automatically ducked, her eyes scanning the room, trying to figure out who would be shooting at them.

Another shot, more ducking, had Beckett shouting, "Everybody down!"

Castle, of course, did anything but. She wanted to yell at him, tackle him to the ground. He was making himself a target by continuing to stand in the middle of the room, but then she saw it, in slow motion as if it were happening to someone else.

Castle threw his hands out, and the next bullets failed to even reach their target, instead hanging suspended in mid-air. Beckett stood, staring in shocked awe as he curled the fingers of his right hand into a fist and yanked, hard. A gun sailed through the air, landing in his outstretched palm. Beckett tracked its path back to the source to find a guy in a leather jacket standing stock still, jaw practically hanging open as he looked at Castle across the room.

Silence hung in the air for long moments, everyone simply breathing in the strangeness. The bullets clattering to the floor were almost as loud as the sound of the shots just minutes ago, but that seemed to be the thing that broke the spell.

Beckett holstered the gun she hadn't even realized she'd drawn, frowning at Castle, but it was Ryan who said what they were all thinking.

"What the fuck, Castle?"

Esposito, thankfully, had cuffed the suspect while the rest of them had been shaking off the stupor of—whatever the hell that had been. Beckett wasn't sure, but she was damned well going to find out.

Uniforms began flooding the room, shouting with guns drawn as they took in the scene.

"Espo, get this guy out of here," she muttered to him as he marched their suspect towards the door. "And make sure he doesn't talk to anyone but us."

"Right," Esposito said, glancing at Castle before heading for the door.

"Sergeant!" Beckett said, the sharpness of her tone causing the older man to flinch visibly. Not that she cared; people she cared about had been in danger just a few minutes ago. Heads were going to roll. "I want your people to clear this building right now. Go inch by inch if you have to, but make sure nobody else is hiding in the corners."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, even before she'd finished barking out her orders.

The uniforms fanned out throughout the warehouse, disappearing from sight as they carried out what was likely a futile search. Beckett didn't care about that, though. Served them right for not doing their jobs in the first place. She turned to look at Castle, who stood still in the same spot, staring down at the bullets at his feet.

"Hey, Beckett," Ryan said. "How're we gonna explain—" he broke off, waving his hand to encompass the bullets, Castle, everything.

Castle took a deep breath, then waved his hand, sending the bullets flying, impacting the walls behind them and skittering off to the darkest corners of the room.

"Well, that answers that question," Ryan said.

Beckett moved to stand next to Castle, gently prying the gun out of his hand, handing it off to Ryan. "Get that into evidence. If the lab asks, Castle and I both handled it when we were helping subdue the suspect."

"Right," Ryan nodded. He hesitated a moment, then turned to Castle. "We're gonna talk about this, right?"

Beckett pursed her lips, intent on deflecting the question when Castle spoke up.

"I promise, I'll explain everything back at the Precinct," he said, throwing them a charming—if slightly dimmed—smile.

"You'd better," Beckett muttered.

~o~

Beckett's expression was more amused that irritated as they gathered around the Murder Board hours later. Amused because it appeared that Castle was scribbling something on the floor in chalk. Every once in a while, he'd glance around, as if he expected someone to notice what he was doing, but they were shielded by the desks on this side of the room so it wasn't likely they'd be interrupted.

"Okay," Esposito said as he joined them at the board. "Our perp is cooling his heels in lock-up as we speak. He still looked a little shell-shocked, so I doubt he's gonna want to talk about this anytime soon." He looked down at Castle, still working on the circle he seemed to be drawing on the floor, frowning in confusion. "What's he up to?"

"Okay, I think that does it," Castle said. Beckett just shrugged at Esposito; she had no idea what was going on, but she figured he'd explain it sooner or later. "Now, if you'll just—" he paused, dragging Esposito and a quietly bemused Ryan closer together, inside the circle he'd drawn. "Yeah, that about does it."

He dropped down to one knee, whipping something out of an inside pocket. Beckett recognized it as a lancet just before Castle pricked his finger. He winced slightly, then took one more surreptitious look around before he reached out and smudged his bloody finger over the chalk line, muttering something too low for her to hear.

A sudden breeze swept up from her heels, over her head, ruffling her hair and muting the sounds around her. She glanced around, but no one outside their little circle seemed to notice.

"What was that?" Ryan asked as he turned to glance over his shoulder.

Castle grabbed him, pulling him a bit closer. "Don't go outside the circle. If you cross the line, the spell will shatter."

"What spell?" Esposito asked suspiciously.

"I've erected a—a wall, I suppose you could say, between us and the rest of the precinct. They can't hear us at all, but since they can't see the spell, no one should notice."

"Is that really necessary?" Esposito asked. Castle just looked at him; Esposito shrugged. "Yeah, whatever, man."

"So, does this mean we get to hear about what happened at the warehouse now?" Ryan asked. "'Cuz I gotta tell you, that was… weird."

"That was actually magic," Castle said.

"Magic?" Beckett said, her hackles rising. "You expect us to believe—"

Whatever else she'd have said was cut off by the absolutely dumbfounded look on Castle's face. Beckett sighed heavily as she ran a hand through her hair. "Right. Magic."

"How'd you learn how to do magic?" Esposito said. "_When_ did you learn how to do magic?"

"The 'when' is easy: I grew up learning how," Castle said. He tucked his hands in his pockets. "The 'how' is a bit more complicated, but suffice to say I learned from a skilled wizard."

"And you're not gonna tell us who it is, are you?" Ryan asked.

"Nope," Castle said. "You don't need to know, and I don't think he'd like me outing him, even to the NYPD."

"So, explain to me what the hell that was at the warehouse," Esposito said.

"That was a shielding spell and a summoning spell. The summoning spell is actually pretty easy, but the shielding spell is a bit more tricky, especially when it covers such a large area."

"And you can just do that? Whip it out like that?" Ryan asked, clearly skeptical.

Castle shot his cuffs, exposing two slim silver bands on his wrists. Beckett had never noticed before, but he almost always wore long-sleeved shirts; now she knew why. "I use these to channel the power necessary to cast spells. I've been doing this for years, so it's not as hard for me as it might be for a novice."

"And your mom?" Beckett asked. "Is she—whatever you are?"

"Nope," Castle said, smiling. "She is exactly who you think she is. Alexis has some aptitude with magic, but she has yet to be formally trained."

"So you got this from your Dad," Ryan said, making the next logical deduction.

"Yeah, he's a wizard," Castle said on a sigh. "Whatever _else_ he was or is, he's the Summer Knight."

"The what?" Esposito asked, clearly confused.

"The Summer Knight," Beckett said. "The mortal champion of the Summer Court. Faeries."

"They prefer the term _Sidhe_, but yes, that's correct," Castle said, clearly impressed.

"What?" Beckett asked. "I studied the classics in school."

"I think I remember this," Ryan said. "The Summer Court was ruled by Titania. They're the good faeries."

"If by 'good' you mean slightly less evil than Satan, then yes, you'd be correct," Castle said. Beckett could see his dislike of them in every fiber of his being. It was uncommon for him to take a disliking to anyone, so she wondered what they'd done to piss him off. "The _Sidhe_ exist on a plane far removed from humans, so they have no concern for our wellbeing or whether their actions might harm us. We simply don't matter to them. The _Sidhe_ of the Summer Court are less openly hostile to humans, but that's about as far as it goes."

"So, how does this work?" Esposito asked. "I mean, is the magic always there, or do you have to, I don't know, summon it or something?"

"It's always there, like a low level hum beneath my skin," Castle said. "Seriously, you never wondered why I don't carry a cellphone and type all my books on an old typewriter?"

"The magic interferes with technology," Beckett said, snapping her fingers. "That's why you tend to wander away when I'm on the phone. Or, at least put a bit more space between us."

"You'd go through cellphones like most people do socks if I stood too close," Castle said.

"So, why the cone of silence?" Ryan asked, indicating the spell around them. "Are you going to get in trouble for telling us?"

Castle raised his hand, wobbling it back and forth. "Probably not, but that's more down to who my father is than that I'm allowed to tell you anything. The White Council rules the magical world, and their rules are absolute. We guard the secret because too many people would use magic for—let's just say, _nefarious_ purposes—if it got out."

"But we're okay?" Esposito asked.

"I can make a case that you'd have found out eventually," Castle said. "You do more to stop the illicit use of magic than you'll ever understand. The White Council isn't above recognizing that it's necessary to have some people in on the secret. They just don't have to like it."

Just then, a uniformed officer stopped beside the group and handed a folder to Ryan. Beckett could feel it the moment the spell broke, like a whisper of a breeze across the backs of her legs. Ryan opened the folder and scanned the contents.

"Ballistics report on our mystery gunman," he said, looking up. "Bullets from his gun match the ones found in the body of our John Doe, whose real name was Chester Langham. Venture Capitalist."

"Any word on why he was in the warehouse?" Beckett asked. "And why he was shot?"

"Nope, but the uniforms aren't done with the canvass yet," Ryan said.

They talked through the details they had, forming a plan of action. They had the who and the how, now they just needed the why, although the DA could get a conviction without it.

"You think you could do that voodoo that you do to get him to confess?" Esposito asked.

Beckett almost laughed out loud at the look of outrage on Castle's face. "Okay, first of all, voodoo is a totally different thing, and nothing you want anything to do with, FYI. And second, you do not want to see that spell in action. It has the unfortunate side effect of making a person… let's just say, the body doesn't react well to lying under the influence."

"Ew," Ryan said, wrinkling his nose. "I am not cleaning up after that one."

"You and me both," Castle said, the distaste on his face clear.

"Guess that means we'll just have to figure it out the old-fashioned way," Beckett said with a smirk. "Ryan, you and Espo go see if the canvass dug anything up while Castle and I talk to the suspect."

Just before they broke, Castle stopped them with a quick question. "We good, guys?"

Beckett could see the hope in his eyes. Hope that he hadn't completely ruined the trust they'd all built by withholding such an important detail about himself. Esposito and Ryan looked at each other; Espo shrugged, then looked back at Castle.

"It's all good, bro," he said, slapping Castle on the arm. "Just don't go keeping any more secrets from us. One big one a lifetime is about my limit."

Castle exhaled loudly. "Thanks. I promise I'll tell you if anything major comes up."

Then he turned his gaze to Beckett. Esposito and Ryan quietly excused themselves as she contemplated what she'd heard. Nothing he'd said changed who he was as a person, and she could understand the necessity of keeping a secret. She'd kept her fair share over the years, as had Ryan and Esposito. That Castle had his own had been a surprise, because he gave the impression of being an open book most of the time, but in the end he'd leveled with them. That was important to her.

"We're good, Castle," she said, smiling. "Just remember that we're your friends. You don't have to keep secrets, if you don't want to."

Castle's smile was almost giddy. "Thanks. That means a lot."

"Now, come on," Beckett said, tapping his arm with her hand. "Let's go see if we can find a motive for our murder."

~Finis


End file.
